These are the eyes of a man who runs a company famous for placing adware on people’s computers. Do you trust him? Well, as a database marketer I’ve always been more accepting than most people when it comes to advertisers tracking my behavior. Despite frequent complaints from my pc-health software, I had the Alexa toolbar installed for years. I kept thinking it would start serving me more relevant searches based on my past behavior, but it never happened.

Those are the eyes of Bill Day, a veteran of the Internet who co-founded About.com and came to WhenU to help clean up its reputation. iMedia Connection features a column from him that looks like ‘pay for play.’ WhenU ads run all around it.

That acknowledged–I agree with everything he says. If you want to understand the beneficial role that permission-based, behavior-tracking advertising can play in your future…read this article.

iMedia Connection: What You Get When You Get Permission by Bill Day

So now my windshield is still really dirty, and my aversion to squeegee guys in general has deepened (it’s a good thing he didn’t come at my windshield with a dirty rag or I might’ve been tempted to deck him). Even though he targeted me with precision and was ready to provide me with something I desperately needed at exactly the right moment, I told him to get lost. No one touches my car without getting my explicit permission first. Most people feel about their computers the same way I feel about my car: don’t touch it without asking me first — even if you’re going to provide something you know I want. So relevance isn’t everything. Without trust, relevance doesn’t mean much.